Nietzsche writes in his famous book, ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra’ a powerful metaphor where he describes the three transformations that our spirit undergoes.
In the beginning, we are a camel: we live an arid life carrying a tremendously heavy burden: the moral – that is, all the dos and don’ts of society. We go around doing what others tell us to do and we behave how we are supposed (conditioned) to behave. In this stage, we affirm life, but by doing and believing stuff that does not spring from our own will.
When the camel gets tired of bearing all the weight he rebels. He no longer wants to do what others tell him to do: his spirit screams for authenticity. Annoyed with the values that are subscribed to him he becomes contumacious: a lion. In this stage, we fight the world and all its rules. We say a firm “no” to the moral, making it a stage that negates, characterized by its rebelliousness and ferocity. Perhaps, now, life is no longer heavy, but rather a problem that needs to be kept at bay or fought against.
Once we get tired of being gruff; when we see that there is no point rejecting everything, the final moment of this metamorphosis comes – it’s glorious and super fun! The child. This transcends the former stages as we no longer think in terms of whether what we are doing is morally correct or incorrect, or is imposed or comes from within. Our actions have now acquired a very distinct characteristic: we do what we want because we want it! Like a child on a playground who has genuine fun not because he is told to (camel) or because he doesn’t want to do what he is told to do (lion) but because he finds a great deal of joy in doing it.
The things that have to get done are no longer heavy nor something that we have to fight against, the categories proper-improper, correct-incorrect dissolve and we are left with a delightful game. The world turns into music and we no longer walk or talk but rather dance and sing. There is nowhere to get to or nothing to be attained, for you are already there and have everything that you could ever need. Our actions no longer need justification, they are all grounded in what we want to do, just by the mere fact that we want to do them! We need not make logical arguments or rank it in terms of how proper it is, there is just an unfolding delight.
nice perspective , add more from the philosopher
ReplyDeleteLet me Think about it. The camel and lion age i agree
ReplyDeleteCool, drop your Insight and perspective here...
DeleteA small brief, don't know where to begin from but to understand the metaphor we've got first to understand what it's all about.
ReplyDeleteThe main points of
Thus Spoke Zarathustra;
~The Doctrine of the Eternal Recurrence.
~Man as Bridge Between Animal and Overman.
~The Doctrine of the Will to Power.
~“God is dead”
~Nietzsche's Conception of Friendship.
For Nietzsche, a morality is inseparable from the culture that values it, meaning that each culture's language, codes, practices, narratives, and institutions are informed by the struggle between these two moral structures.
Indeed, as Nietzsche puts it: 'morality defends itself with all its strength against such “possibilities” … Stubbornly and relentlessly it says, “I am morality itself, and nothing else. The result is that we now just accept moral values as given, rather than pursue our own goals and excellences.
According to his Perspectives on Morality, he believed that morality is not an absolute but rather a construct, created and enforced by people to control and dominate each other. He argued that morality should not be taken for granted, but rather, should be questioned and reevaluated.
Nietzsche tells a story of how man is the bridge between the animal and the overman. The overman is a being that is beyond good and evil; a being that has transcended the limitations of the human condition.
NB
The main theme of Thus Spoke Zarathustra is the nature of values. The values of traditional religions involve contempt for the body and a lack of creativity. Nietzsche thinks traditional religions ultimately lead to nihilism. He proposes a morality that is creative and life-affirming.
Zarathustra's definition of values is that they are the temporary waypoints or goals that humans create in order that they can recreate themselves.
While traditional religious values are ultimately things that humans have created, Nietzsche's point is that those created values are no longer being used for the sake of creation. It is clear from his section on despisers of the body that objective, ascetic values lead to the stagnation of human beings. It is not entirely clear if those values, because of their objectivity, necessarily had to lead to stagnation rather than creativity. Moreover, while it is clear that he thinks that the values of the supermen will overcome nihilism, it is not clear if the success of them supermen will simply lead to a new form of stagnation and nihilism.